Share this

Jan 12, 2010

Wait a second, what?

China claims a missle intercept test went well:

China says it has successfully carried out a test of military technology to shoot down missiles in mid-air. The news comes in the wake of tensions between Beijing and Washington because of American missile sales to Taiwan, an island China considers part of its territory.

Jiang says Monday's test of "ground-based, mid-course missile intercepting technology" had what she describes as "the expected result."

There have been few details about the test....

She emphasizes that the anti-missile test is in line with what she calls China's path of peaceful development and is not targeted at any country.
Wait until everyone gets their hands on that.

My guess? The test didn't go very well. And I believe Taiwan media will go crazy about the report, with the pro-unification media emphasizing that any test like this was aimed at the US, not Taiwan.

3 comments:

Tim Maddog said...

A story on the same topic in the January 13, 2010 edition of the Taipei Times has the money quote from Defense News Asia Bureau Chief Wendell Minnick down at the very bottom:
- - -
It’s China aiming missiles at Taiwan, not vice versa
- - -

Tim Maddog

Tommy said...

A Pentagon spokesperson has confirmed that the test was successful. The Chinese media is having a field day with this.

Despite the media hype, the Pentagon is claiming that this is not retaliation over the sale of missiles to Taiwan. So is Yu Wanli, a professor at Peking University's Centre for International and Strategic Studies.

These tests supposedly take a very long time to prepare for, meaning that preparations were probably being made before the announcement of the missile sale to Taiwan was made. The timing just allows the media to hype up the issue, and with the Chinese government wanting to maximize coverage of their rising influence and already peeved over arms sales, they are only too happy to allow speculation to go in this direction.

Unknown said...

International politics remind me of kindergarten.